Borohydride reaction with carbonyl compounds

Derivatization. Components with active groups such as hydroxyl, amine, carboxyl, and olefin can be identified by a combination of chemical reactions and GC. For example, the sample can be shaken with bromine water and then chromatographed. Peaks due to olefinic compounds will have disappeared. Similarly, potassium borohydride reacts with carbonyl compounds to form the corresponding alcohols. Comparison of before and after chromatograms will show that one or more peaks have vanished whereas others have appeared somewhere else on the chromatogram. Compounds are often derivatized to make them more volatile or less polar (e.g., by silylation, acetylation, methy-lation) and consequently suitable for analysis by GC. 

There have been a few reports on the simple route to enamidines offerred by the Peterson reaction. Lithiation of a-silyl amidines such as 66 with Bu Li and subsequent Peterson reaction with carbonyl compounds gives the corresponding enamidines 67 (Scheme 2.42) [106,107). The enamidines 67 are converted to the amines by treatment with sodium borohydride in ethanol under slightly acidic conditions. These entire homologation processes can be performed without purification of the enamidine intermediates 67. 

It has been found possible to construct the 1,4-benzothiazine ring by direct interaction of bis-(2-aminobenzene) disulfide (96) with carbonyl compounds.139,140 The reaction is most efficient when conducted under a nitrogen atmosphere with a 1 1 ratio of reactants otherwise, the principle products are benzothiazoles. While reduction of the benzothiazine 97 with sodium borohydride gives a stable dihydro derivative, the unsaturated benzothiazines themselves were prone to autoxidation, giving rise to benzothiazoles and benzothiazine sulfoxides.141... 

Hydride reagents (lithium aluminum hydride, LiAlHt, and sodium borohy-dride, NaBHt) are a source of the nucleophilic hydride species Hr. Reaction of hydride with a suitable carbon electrophile results in a reduction of that carbon (by increasing the number of C-H bonds). Reactions of carbonyl compounds with lithium aluminum hydride (LAH) generally give an alcohol product (after workup), with the exception of amides, which give amine products. Sodium borohydride is less reactive than LAH. It does not react with esters, amides, or carboxylic acids, so it is described as being selective for aldehydes and ketones. Sodium borohydride also fails to reduce nitroalkanes or alkyl halides, so LAH must be used in those reactions. 

Consequently, by choosing proper conditions, especially the ratios of the carbonyl compound to the amino compound, very good yields of the desired amines can be obtained [322, 953]. In catalytic hydrogenations alkylation of amines was also achieved by alcohols under the conditions when they may be dehydrogenated to the carbonyl compounds [803]. The reaction of aldehydes and ketones with ammonia and amines in the presence of hydrogen is carried out on catalysts platinum oxide [957], nickel [803, 958] or Raney nickel [956, 959,960]. Yields range from low (23-35%) to very high (93%). An alternative route is the use of complex borohydrides sodium borohydride [954], lithium cyanoborohydride [955] and sodium cyanoborohydride [103] in aqueous-alcoholic solutions of pH 5-8. 

Compound 63, the 2-formyl derivative of compound 61, undergoes a series of side-chain reactions at the carbonyl group including reduction with sodium borohydride and condensation reactions with hydroxylamine or malononitrile. The reactions afford the appropriately 2-substituted products in excellent yields <2004CHE1477>. 

Varma reported a facile and rapid method for the reduction of aldehydes and ketones to the respective alcohols, using alumina-supported sodium borohydride and microwave irradiation under solvent-free conditions. Aldehydes tend to react at room temperature, while for the reduction of ketones, short microwave irradiation of 30-180 s was applied to produce the corresponding alcohols in 62-92% yield. With unsaturated carbonyl compounds, reduction at the conjugated C=C bond might occur as a side reaction under these conditions (Scheme 4.9)26. 

The Cannizzaro reaction, that is, the base-catalysed disproportionation of a carbonyl compound to an alcohol and a carboxylic acid, has gained some importance as an economically viable alternative to the reduction with borohydrides. However, the reaction is restricted to carbonyl compounds without any a-hydrogen, which do not undergo competing aldol reactions. Thus, mainly aromatic aldehydes are used for this kind of transformation. The protocols developed for microwave applications typically involve solvent-free conditions using alumina as the solid support. Under these conditions, a significant acceleration of the reaction was achieved. 

The reduction is usually effected catalytically in ethanol solution using hydrogen under pressure in the presence of Raney nickel. As in the reduction of nitriles (Section 5.16.1, p. 771), which also involves the intermediate imine, ammonia or the amines should be present in considerable excess to minimise the occurrence of undesirable side reactions leading to the formation of secondary and tertiary amines. These arise from the further reaction of the carbonyl compound with the initially formed amine product. Selected experimental conditions for these reductive alkylation procedures have been well reviewed.210 Sodium borohydride has also been used as an in situ reducing agent and is particularly effective with mixtures of primary amines and aliphatic aldehydes and ketones.211... 

Even if the imine may not be isolated, the transient species may sometimes be trapped by reaction with a suitable nucleophile. This is the basis of the reductive amination reaction in which an amine is formed from the reaction of ammonia with a carbonyl compound in the presence of a reducing agent such as sodium borohydride or formate. Use of a primary or secondary amine results in the specific formation of secondary or tertiary amines respectively (Fig. 5-45). This synthetic method allows the preparation of high yields of amines, in contrast to the unselective and uncontrollable reaction of alkylating agents with amines. A specific example involving the preparation of a-phenylethylamine from acetophenone is presented in Fig. 5-46. 

Arenetellurolates, ethenetellurolates, and alkanetellurolates prepared by reduction of diorgano ditellurium compounds with sodium borohydride in ethanol, THF/ethanol, or DMSO add to acetylenes in regioselective and iran.y-stereoselcctive reactions to produce aryl ethenyl tellurium products either predominantly or exclusively as (Z)-isomers. The yields are almost always higher than 70%. In reactions with acetylenic aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and esters the arenetellurolate becomes bonded to the carbon atom in a [i-position to the carbonyl group. 

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